UK-Israeli relations have plunged to their worst state for decades after the British foreign secretary, David Lammy, suspended negotiations over a new free trade deal saying Israel’s cabinet ministers’ calls to “purify Gaza” by expelling Palestinians were repellant, monstrous and extremist, writes Patrick Wintour and Emma Graham-Harrison.

He also said wider talks about a future bilateral strategic roadmap with Israel were also being reviewed.

Lammy condemned Israel’s refusal to allow thousands of aid trucks access to starving Palestinians and said Israel’s treatment of Palestinians was “an affront to the values of the British people” and “incompatible with the principles that underpin the UK-Israeli bilateral relationship”.

Unleashing language he has not used since the latest Gaza conflict began, Lammy said the further planned major military incursion into Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces was “morally unjustifiable, wholly disproportionate and utterly counter-productive”.

Sounding genuinely outraged with the government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Lammy said: “We are now entering a dark new phase in this conflict. Netanyahu’s government is planning to drive Gazans from their homes into a corner of the Strip to the south and permit them a fraction of the aid that they need.”

Israel’s foreign ministry accused the UK of having an anti-Israel obsession.

Responding to the suspension of trade talks, Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein said: “If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy – that is its own prerogative.”

The leader of the largest union for civil servants has warned the government to invest in public services or pay the price at the ballot box.

Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) general secretary Fran Heathcote told delegates at its annual conference in Brighton that ministers must stop attacks on the Civil Service.

She said: “Although the Prime Minister has scrapped Tory plans to slash 66,000 Civil Service jobs, there are still too many threats to jobs in many areas of government – and we will be fighting to defend jobs, and indeed to expand the Civil Service where we can make that case.

“We have to take on this false divide that has been brought up again recently – between the back office and the front line.

“Whether it’s in the NHS, the police, the courts or the core Civil Service – the front line cannot do its job without the back office.

“If you cut the back office, you damage the front line.”

The Road Haulage Association has welcomed today’s announcement of a new Common Sanitary and Phytosanitary Area, which promises to ease food import and export processes between the UK and EU by reducing costs and delays for cross-border goods movements.

RHA managing director, Richard Smith, said: “The initial news coming out of the summit will be welcomed by businesses, specifically those operating in Northern Ireland, as if implemented, these changes will potentially reduce friction and enable smoother trade between GB and NI and within the UK internal market. While more technical details are still emerging, these initial changes are welcome.”

However, the RHA said it is concerned over other Windsor Framework specific regulations, citing ongoing lack of clarity and real-time communication in a range of areas.

“We again urge ministers to recognise the significant ongoing impact on the Northern Ireland supply chain” added Smith.

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel will “take control” of all of Gaza, as three key allies attacked his “egregious” escalation of the military campaign and blockade on humanitarian aid, writes Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum in Jerusalem.

Britain, France and Canada attacked Israel’s expansion of its war as disproportionate, described conditions in Gaza as “intolerable” and threatened a “concrete” response if Israel’s campaign continues.

Earlier that day, Israel’s military declared an entire city a combat zone, airstrikes killed more than 60 people, and the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said Israel’s army would “wipe out” what remains of Palestinian Gaza.

“We will not stand by while the Netanyahu government pursues these egregious actions. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response,” the three allied governments said in a statement on Monday.

Conservative MP Mark Pritchard said he welcomes the new sanctions against Israel, adding he hopes the government will “keep those under review and take further measures if necessary”.

He said: “Is it not now increasingly clear that the Israeli prime minister has misled the US president over allowing aid back into Gaza? Ten trucks is a perverse and pathetic token.”

Here is David Lammy in parliament earlier challenging his shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel after he said the Conservative frontbench was “refusing to confront the appalling reality of what is happening in Gaza and what the Netanyahu government is doing.”

Downing Street said arms export licences to Israel would remain under review when asked if the UK could ban more arms going to the country, PA Media reports.

Asked if the UK had considered banning further arms export licences to Israel, the prime minister’s spokesperson said: “I think our longstanding answer to that is we always keep such arrangements under review.”

The prime minister and the chancellor were not in parliament during that debate on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as they have been out on a visit to Lidl to try to promote what they describe as the benefits of the recently announced trade deal with the EU.

PA Media reports that speaking in a backroom of the shop with Lidl staff, Rachel Reeves said:

I recognise the cost-of-living pressures that people have been under the last few years. You will know that, and your families and you will know that, from your customers as well, that they haven’t all gone away and there is still more that we need to do.

I want you to know that in every action that we take as a Government our priority is to improve the living standards of ordinary working people, and the trade deals that we have secured with the US, with India, and now the EU, are all with that front of mind.

Keir Starmer told broadcasters “We are in Lidl because the deal that we struck yesterday will mean lower prices in our supermarkets. Shelves like this. That is really good news for customers of Lidl, for the staff of Lidl, and for all of those involved in food and agriculture.

“There is a real buzz. I have just been with the staff. They are very pleased because they know for their customers, for their families, it makes a real difference.”

Incidentally, just rowing back slightly, before the debate on Israel and the Occupoed Palestinian Territories, right at the end of the UK-EU trade deal session, Conservative MP Mark Francois raised a point of order, claiming that the prime minister Keir Starmer earlier may have “misled the house”.

He said Starmer was “guilty of sophistry at best, and potentially something worse,” and was reading out sections of a document about trade dispute mechanisms.

The deputy speak had little truck with it, telling Francois “I thank the Hon gentleman for his point of order, which he will know was not a point of order, and not a matter for the chair, but he has put it on the record.”

Prime minister Keir Starmer then said “I won’t descend into silly language like he did,” in response, and the deputy speaker brought that session to a close.

Conservative MPs Mark Pritchard and Kit Malthouse both raised points of oder, seeking further votes or debates on the issue in the near future, “on the basis that this situation is so dire and so acute,” Malthouse said.

The debate after the foreign secretary’s statement has ended. David Lammy concluded it by saying:

I’ve not been able to answer all the questions in the hour-and-a-half that I’ve been on my feet, but I hope that our friends in Israel have seen the strength of feeling across the House today.

The Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives has again raised the question of the UK’s recognition of a Palestinian state as part of the government’s stated support for a two-state solution.

Andrew George said to foreign secretary David Lammy:

Although it is long overdue, I warmly welcome the sentiment behind the government’s announcement today. [I and some other MPs] visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories last month, and what we saw there was absolutely shocking. Others have described it as apartheid. I think it’s actually worse than that.

Now, the foreign secretary has said that the question of the recognition of the Palestinian State is one which was stuck in a process. But can he not, at least today, accept that, that he can recognise the right of Palestinians to statehood and democracy?

Lammy suggested it would not be an effective tactic, telling George:

What we’re discussing with France, as a member of the UN security council, a permanent member, is how we can actually affect things on the ground.

He will recognise that others have recognised the Palestinian statehood, [but] that we would not be having this debate if it had affected things on the ground.

As the country’s chief diplomat, I stand by the seriousness of actually making a decision that might bring about change on the ground,

Here is a clip of David Lammy earlier in parliament announcing the suspension of trade talks with Israel and calling on Benjamin Netanyahu to end Israel’s aid blockade of Gaza.

Three of the indpendent MPs have spoken during this debate on the foreign secretary’s statement on “Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Jeremy Corbyn asked about the supply of arms from UK to the Israel. David Lammy said:

He asked me a similar question a few weeks ago, and I gave him the answer – that we suspended ourselves. That was a sober decision I made. They’re not being given to Israel for use in Gaza at this time.

Zarah Sultana, currently independent MP for Coventry South as she is suspended from Labour, asked the foreign secretary how he could sleep at night. In a terse exchange, she said:

Children are starving. Families have been wiped out. Hospitals destroyed. Yet the government in court claims that there is no evidence Israel targets civilians. The foreign secretary is personally responsible and refuses to ban all arms sales to this genocidal state. So like many across Britain, I have to ask the foreign secretary, how do you sleep at night?

She had quoted some figures which she said were export licences granted to Israel. Lammy said:

Well, the honourable lady has raised figures that I don’t recognise. She’s raised, once again, the issue of arms sales to Israel. I banned arm sales that could be used in Gaza.

He then accused her of being “keen on clickbait.”

Shockat Adam, the independent MP for Leicester South, said he wished the trade deal talks suspension applied more broadly, telling the foreign secretary:

I, too, cautiously welcome the foreign secretary’s passion and his statement, albeit a little bit late for 51,000 Palestinians, but nonetheless I welcome on his statement.

The foreign secretary talks about the suspensions of negotiations on new trade deals. Would a suspension not be more effective on existing trade deals?

And if indeed, the foreign secretary believes the behavior of the Israeli government is abominable, can I ask why a government minister parted with the Israelis just last week, while 370 Gaza were massacred and the world was mourning for them? Does that not undermine trust in the UK’s role in this conflict?

Kemi Badenoch has posted a clip of her earlier exchange with Keir Starmer. She has accompanied the video with this message: “Listen to Labour laugh when I say the public want honesty from government. That says it all.”

She seems to have missed the point that Labour MPs weren’t laughing at the idea that government should be honest, or that is what the public wants, they were laughing at the idea of being lectured on honesty by someone who had served in the previous Conservative administration.

In response to an MP saying it was Hamas, not Israel, holding up a ceasefire deal in Gaza, David Lammy has said the UK “must speak up” about Israel’s blockade of the territory.

The foreign secretary said:

I don’t think I’ve been at this dispatch box on the six occasions that statements have been made on this subject, when I have not condemned Hamas, [when] I have not condemned what they did on October the seventh, [when] I have not condemned those that are keeping hostages. And let me be clear, I actually believe Hamas are holding hostage the Palestinian people.

But just as you can hold that, you can also hold in your heart and in your mind that it is morally reprehensible to continue this blockade to reduce 400 humanitarian aid points to four this is impossible. It’s intolerable, and of course, the United Kingdom must speak up against it.

I suspect video clips of David Lammy saying, as he did, “I have not condemned Hamas, I have not condemned what they did on 7 October, I have not condemned those that are keeping hostages,” will be widely shared without the preceeding context, and he may come to regret having phrased it this way.

Tamara Cohen, Sky News political correspondent, has posted to social media to say that the “FCO confirm that this is the first time trade talks have been suspended by the UK for a political/humanitarian aim.”

Melanie Ward, the Labour MP for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy, has said she welcomes the UK decision to suspend trade negotiations with Israel. She told MPs:

I welcome today’s steps forward, particularly on trade. The fact that we are on the brink of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians is such a collective global failure, it betrays words.

And I want to ask, unlike the shadow foreign secretary, will the foreign secretary confirm the UK’s total opposition to Israeli plans to replace humanitarian NGOs and the UN with mercenaries?

And in relation to the important statement by the UK, France and Canada threatening further important, multilateral action. If Israel does not stop, can I ask, what is the red line?

We’ve been here before with the Rafah offensive, when the international community said it would stop Israel. And it did not. Gaza is out of time.

In response David Lammy says:

Let me be crystal clear, this government opposes Israel’s model for aid. We believe it does not respect humanitarian principles. It cannot deliver aid effectively at speed or scale required. It’s wrong, and it’s dangerous to the humanitarian system.

Israel has proposed that it would manage the distribution of aid within Gaza, removing the role of UN agencies and voluntary organisations.

There has been a murmer of discontent in the Commons after Conservative MP Desmond Swayne asks what the government means by “further action” and David Lammy rather uncharitably replies by saying “I would ask him to consult with a dictionary and look at the two words.”

Veteran Conservative MP Roger Gale has spoken. He said:

I doubt whether there’s a single member of this house that does not wish to see the 58 remaining hostages return to their family to whether dead or alive.

I think that the foreign secretary is right to say that genocide – my words, not his – that genocide and war crimes are not the way to get the hostages released.

There are in this house parents and grandparents who will stand up for children anywhere in the world. I’m prepared to nail my colours to that mast. We have to take action. We cannot stand by.

The deputy speaker says there are 70 more MPs down to talk on this debate, and offers the advice they could help each other by asking short questions. Stephen Flynn for the SNP is next to stand up and there is a pause and a brief ripple of laughter as he says “no pressure” about keeping his usual style more brief.

Kit Malthouse, Conservative MP for for North West Hampshire, has appealed for more concrete action from the UK government. He tells the foreign secretary:

The anger and the outrage of the foreign secretary is appreciated by us all, and I sense that it is genuine. But he knows as well as I do that the Israelis couldn’t give a damn what he says in this chamber, or indeed for the statement. And as he will know, since that statement has issued, dozens of Palestinians have been killed, and there have been voices of defiance from the Israeli government.

Now the statement mentions the taking of concrete action. I’m not quite sure what the trigger for that is, and many of these in this Chamber have been trying to spur the government into taking action. Over the last few months, we’ve tried anger and outrage and got nowhere. We’ve tried shaming ministers into action and got nowhere. So maybe we need to beg.

Does the frontbench need us to beg for the lives of those Palestinian children before they’ll trigger this concrete action? Whatever it might be, I’m urging begging the foreign secretary to pluck up all his moral authority and courage stand up in government against the blockage in Downing Street and please try to save these children’s lives as soon as possible.

Conservative MP Mark Pritchard has said he welcomes “the strongest statement that has occurred in this house in recent times on this issue.”

Florence Eshalomi, Labour MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, asks “we must have clear and tangible consequences for Israel if they continue to use blatant disregard for international law and using food and aid as a weapon of punishment.”

She says “the UK is legally bound to prevent acts of genocide.”

Dawn Butler, the Brent East MP, tells parliament “It feels like it’s taken a long time for us to get to this point.”

She tells MPs:

Secretary of state, when something’s intolerable, we stop it from happening somehow or another. Will this actually stop what is happening in Gaza, or is it too late?

The fact that Netanyahu has said he will let a small amount of aid in means that he understands that he’s been withholding aid. That is a breach of international law, and we must call it out for what it is, and we must insist that the hostages are returned and also the prisoners who are held without charge.

Calum Miller, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson, has invited the foreign secretary to condemn the words of specific ministers in the Israeli government.

David Lammy says:

Can I say to him that I have condemned the statements of [national security minister] Itamar Ben-Gvir and [finance minister] Bezalel Smotrich in the past.

Smotrich said Gaza will be entirely destroyed. Civilians will be sent to the south, to a humanitarian zone without massive terrorism, and from there we will start to leave in great numbers, to third countries.

We condemn that language. We condemn the language of minister Ben-Gvir. And of course, we keep that language under review, and we continue to discuss these issues with our international partners.

Miller asks Lammy “what more would Israel have to do to the people of Gaza for its actions to constitute not simply a risk, but an actual breach of international law?”

There are details of the new sanctions on the government website here.

In it, the government says “New sanctions target three individuals, two illegal settler outposts and two organisations supporting violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Today’s measures include financial restrictions and travel bans, including on high-profile extremist settler leader Daniella Weiss.”

She recently appeared in the Louis Theroux documentary about settlers.

The government statement includes the following quote from foreign secretary:

I have seen for myself the consequences of settler violence. The fear of its victims. The impunity of its perpetrators.

The sanctioning of Daniella Weiss and others today demonstrates our determination to hold extremist settlers to account as Palestinian communities suffer violence and intimidation at the hands of extremist settlers.

The Israeli government has a responsibility to intervene and halt these aggressive actions. Their consistent failure to act is putting Palestinian communities and the two-state solution in peril.

Minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer is quoted as saying:

Today I will set out to Ambassador Hotovely the government’s opposition to the wholly disproportionate escalation of military activity in Gaza and emphasise that the 11-week block on aid to Gaza has been cruel and indefensible. I will urge Israel to halt settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank.

Israel must abide by its obligations under International Humanitarian Law and ensure full, rapid, safe and unhindered provision of humanitarian assistance to the population in Gaza. The limited amount of aid entering is simply not enough.

We must get an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages and a path to a two-state solution is the only way to ensure the long-term peace and security of both Palestinians and Israelis.

The foreign secretary David Lammy has said the starvation situation in Gaza is “abominable” in parliament in the UK.

He told MPs:

This weekend, the Israeli Defense Force started a new extensive ground operation throughout Gaza, Operation Gideon’s Chariot. Five Israeli divisions are now operating there.

Prime Minister Netanyahu says that they’re going to take control of the strip, letting only minimal amounts of food reach Gazans. Madam deputy speaker I quote Mr Netanyahu. He says, just enough to prevent hunger.

Fewer than ten trucks entered Gaza yesterday. The UN and the World Health Organization have issued stark warnings of the threat of starvation hanging over hundreds of 1000s of civilians.

Madame deputy speaker, this is abominable. Civilians in Gaza are facing starvation, homelessness, trauma, desperate for this war to end now confront renewed bombardment, new displacement and new suffering.

And the remaining hostages kept apart from their loved ones by Hamas for almost 600 days, are now at heightened risk from the war around them.

The House has emptied out somewhat now, but Keir Starmer is still taking questions on trade deals and the EU. We are still expecting a statement from foreign secretary David Lammy this afternoon.

Ellie Chowns, the Green party of England and Wales MP for North Herefordshire, has said the party “broadly welcomes” the UK-EU deal announced by the government yesterday.

She told MPs:

On behalf of the Green party, I broadly welcome the progress that was made at the summit yesterday. It’s not quite the step change that we need, but it is a step forward towards the closest possible relationships with our closest neighbors that we continue to champion, although I would gently point out that it’s hardly unprecedented, because, of course, up until we left the EU we had a much better relationship.

She then asked why Keir Starmer was being “so timid on the youth mobility scheme, given the huge benefits that this would offer to our young people and our country as a whole.”

Helena Horton has an update on Thames Water

Thames Water has blocked controversial plans to pay executives “retention payments” out of a £3bn loan, the environment secretary told the Efra committee.

Steve Reed said: “Just over the last few days we have seen a very unfortunate situation where Thames Water appeared to be attempting to circumvent that ban, calling their bonuses something different so they can continue to pay them. I am very happy indeed that Thames have now dropped those proposals. It was the wrong thing to do. They have now withdrawn their proposal to make those payments.”

The company won a court battle that allowed it to accept the loan, which comes with an expensive 9.75% interest rate and fees. The chair of Thames Water has written to the committee to clarify his comments after the Guardian revealed he wrongly told it last week that the bonuses were “insisted upon” by the creditors.

Sir Adrian Montague told the environment, food and rural affairs (Efra) select committee last week that the lenders had insisted that “very substantial” bonuses of up to 50% of salary should be paid to company executives from the controversial loan in order to retain key staff.

The chair of Thames Water has now written to the committee to say he “misspoke” after the Guardian revealed his comments were not true.

After the Guardian approached Thames to ask why its chair claimed the lenders “insisted” bonuses were paid, Montague wrote to the Efra committee to clarify his comments.

“Following the session we have been approached by the Guardian who we understand intend to write a story suggesting that we misled the committee in relation to the Company’s management retention plan.

“I appreciate that in the heat of the moment I may have misspoken when I stated that the creditors insisted on the management retention plan.”

Helena Dollimore, Labour MP and member of the committee, said of Montague’s appearance: “He was trying to justify the paying of these retention payment … that the creditors of Thames Water had said it was a condition of the loan for top leaders to get retention payments. Since that evidence to our committee we’ve seen documents filed in the high court that suggest Sir Adrian misled in his wording … This is very serious behaviour from the bosses of Thames Water at our committee.”

Richard Tice, the deputy Reform UK leader, is in parliament today. He tells MPs that the government has “surrendered the fishing industry”, and that “my constituents are furious that you have surrendered on freedom of movement and on rule taking under the ECJ.”

He continues, saying, “there is good news, prime minister. Do you accept that you have also surrendered the jobs of many of your backbench MPs at the next general election to Reform?”

Keir Starmer gently replies “I will happily explain to his constituents the huge benefits of these deals, measured in jobs that will be saved, jobs that can now thrive, bills that will come down. And it is really important for our economy that we have these deals. That is in the interests of his constituents. It’s in the interests of the whole country.”

Long-term Brexit campaigner Mark Francois has just angrily accused the government of making the UK a rule-taker again from the European Union. Keir Starmer wearily replies “I’d forgotten about some of the nonsense that gets spouted.”

Francois continues to heckle the prime minister as he answers, with multiple MPs calling on the Conservative MP to shut up.

Just to confirm what Keir Starmer mentioned earlier, the MP for Clacton and Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, has not attended parliament for this statement on the UK-EU trade deal.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has given his response to the UK-EU deal in this debate, suggesting that people on the frontbenches of other parties “need to calm their jets.”

He continued:

This is obviously not a surrender, just as it’s obviously no substitute for membership of the European Union. Nor indeed is it, as the prime minister has repeatedly said today, providing unprecedented access to the EU market. That is simply absurd.

He then calls for more investment in Scotland.

Emily Thornberry, chair of foreign affairs committee, made a short intervention earlier, and opened by saying “Can I begin by thanking the prime minister for what he has said about Gaza? It couldn’t be clearer the message that he’s sending to the far-right government of Netanyahu, and it should have the unanimous support of this house. It is essentially: this must stop.”

Responding to veteran Brexit campaigner Bernard Jenkin, who accused Labour of betraying the referendum result with this UK-EU trade deal, Keir Starmer said the fact that Labour was doing trade deals with India and the US show the government wasn’t rejoining the European Union.

Starmer says they have stuck to their red lines about not rejoining the EU, “no single market, no Customs Union, no freedom of movement.”

Starmer says the fact there are deals elsewhere “could be no better evidence that we not going back into the EU.”

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey says he wants to associate himself with the prime minister’s remarks about “the appalling situation in Gaza” and said Keir Starmer should work with allies to “put pressure on Netanyahu”, and consider formal recognition of Palestine as a state. Palestine is recognised as a sovereign state by 147 of the 193 member states of the UN.

Liam Byrne says there had been good cross-bench cooperation at committee level working on these deals, which Keir Starmer acknowledges. He says:

I first [want to] pick up on his point about cross-party support at the select committee, because there are members of the party opposite who I think are ashamed by the response of the leader of the opposition, and know very well that these are good deals that should be supported. A number of backbench MPs are already coming out saying, actually, these deals are good and in the national interests.

Ed Davey is up next.

Keir Starmer has listed a large number of new things introduced by the trade deals, ending each item with “and she’s against it,” referring to Badenoch.

He tells MPs of the benches opposite “they’re so unserious. They’re lost. They’re lost. Lost into a descent into the abyss. They used to be a proud party of trading agreements. They’ve slid off into the abyss.”

Liam Byrne, chair of the business and trade committee, is speaking now.

Kemi Badenoch has just sparked a raucous chorus of laughter from the Labour benches by saying “Mr Speaker, in government, details matter, and so does honesty.”

Keir Starmer opened his response to her by simply saying “Oh dear.”

He continues “that was just such an unserious response. She says details matter in government. They matter in opposition as well.”

Kemi Badenoch said the prime minister deliberately did not mention “the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations who have described the deal as a surrender and a giveaway.”

She continued:

This is a prime minister who would pay to give away his family silver. Why is the prime minister selling our fishermen down the river? Is it because they don’t vote Labour.

Leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, has said Labour’s trade deals with the US, India and EU are not a “hat-trick of deals but own goals”.

Badenoch said “it is very easy to sign deals if you’re prepared to give everything away for pennies.”

She said:

The prime minister can dress it up as much as he wants, but he has failed. It is bad for bills, it is bad for jobs and it is bad for borders. This is not a deal made for Britain. This is a deal made for Labour’s PR to show them on the world stage, but it is a stitch up for our country for their short term headlines.

She accused Starmer of “selling out our sovereignty, our businesses, and the public.”

Keir Starmer has included jibes at Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage and Ed Davey in his statement. Touting a long list of business organisations who had made approving sounds about the deal, he said:

I wonder whether that long list of businesses coming out to support this deal will temper the reaction of the Leader of the opposition in her response. But then again, for weeks now, she has been dismissive of the benefits of any trade deal, in defiance, frankly, of her party’s history.

But it’s not just them. It’s also the member for Clapton – who’s not here – and the member for Kingston, who’ve both shown in their own ways, that their parties simply do not get that if your whole approach to our allies is about striking a pose, then you don’t get to strike a deal.

Badenoch is up now.

Keir Starmer says the new UK-EU trade deal will assist in tackling illegal migration. He told the House of Commons:

It also strengthens our borders, because, again, the previous deal left a huge gap, weakened our ability to work together to tackle illegal migration, the ultimate cross-border challenge. This partnership closes that gap, including joint work on returns, preventing channel crossings and working upstream … co-operating along the whole migration route to strengthen our hand in the fight against the vile smuggling gangs.

Keir Starmer has used his statement about recently struck trade deal to criticise the previous Conservative government for its failure to secure them. He said the trade deals were “in the national interest”.

He said “The principles we took into the negotiations are clear and simple. Does it drive down bills? Does it drive up jobs? Does it strengthen our borders? And in each case, the answer is resoundingly Yes. These deals release us from the tired arguments of the past, and as an independent sovereign nation, allow us to seize the opportunities of the future.”

He said he can see that “when it comes to this hat-trick of deals, it’s our new partnership with the EU that [the Conservatives] most want to talk about. Given their abject failure to strike a deal with India or the US, I can’t say I blame them.”

During Treasury questions, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has claimed the SNP has put itself in an “absurd” position over the UK-EU trade deal over fishing rights.

SNP MP Dave Doogan asked her:

What changes will the Chancellor introduce in the spring statement to compensate for the growth-threatening Sword of Damocles she has just placed over the Scottish fishing industry?

She should know, but probably doesn’t, that 70% of revenue from fishing and agriculture comes from Scotland. She should know, but probably doesn’t, that the fishing industry in Scotland is 50 times larger for Scotland’s economy than the UK. So can she explain what discussions did she have with the Scottish Fishermen Federation or the Scottish government before making this damaging decision?

In reply Reeves said:

I was very pleased that the Scottish Salmon Association welcomed the trade deal that we secured with the EU yesterday, and 70% of the fish that is caught in UK waters is sold into European markets.

The SNP are now in an absurd situation where they support Reform and the Tories in opposing the deal with the EU.

My colleague Helena Horton was watching the Efra select committee this morning. Here is her report

Environment secretary Steve Reed is appearing in front of the Efra select committee this morning. He has defended the deal between the EU and the UK which was struck yesterday and allows extended fishing rights for European fishers in UK waters. Some commentators have claimed the UK was “stitched up like a kipper” by the EU and that the deal is unfair to UK fishers.

He said of critics: “Very respectfully I completely disagree with them, given that we could have been sat here this morning talking about a reduction in UK quotas, increased access of EU access into UK territorial waters, no investment fund for those communities, and no increased ability into the ease of exporting into the Eu so that’s what we could have been facing. They’ve lost nothing in terms of what they have at the moment they have gained access into EU markets.”

Reed added this is because: “Less of our British fish will rot at the border, we have pushed for long time for live bivalve molluscs to be exported back into Europe and they will be, so there is no downside for this for fishers, there’s a big upside in what they can export.”

He added: “You would think every single party in this party would agree that this [deal] is good for business and good for trade”

The precision breeding bill going through parliament currently, which would allow farmers to grow gene edited crops and it potentially also applies to livestock, puts the UK at loggerheads with the EU, which has a ban on such technologies.

Reed said this will still go ahead, adding: “I want to see our farming sector to benefit from the potential higher productivity higher yields that can come from using that technology, we are somewhat ahead of the EU. If we can increase yields, we increase profitability for the farming sector, obviously there will be issues around what can be imported into the EU. We are not in the EU.”

Testing facilities at the border between the UK and the EU, such as in Dover, will be wound down, Defra’s biosecurity chief Emily Miles said.

She said there will be a “scaling back” of the “Facilities that were built for Brexit” and checks would now focus on illegal imports. “There will be a decommissioning of some facilities, we need to work through where and how.”

The House of Commons has begun sitting for the day, with Treasury questions up first.

We are expecting two statements in the house later today. Prime minister Keir Starmer will make a statement on the UK-EU Summit, and foreign secretary David Lammy is set to make a statement on “Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Severin Carrell is the Guardian’s Scotland editor

The Church of Scotland has very narrowly voted to maintain its historic opposition to assisted dying after a motion to put it on a neutral footing for the first time was amended.

A joint working group had recommended the church adopt a more nuanced stance on assisted dying, by agreeing there were valid Christian arguments for supporting it, as well as theologian arguments against it.

But to the delight of critics of the measure, its annual general assembly, meeting in Edinburgh this week, voted by 149 to 145 for a countermotion which reaffirmed its opposition, while acknowledging the diversity of views about the proposal.

The Scottish parliament will soon start formally assessing a new bill to legalise assisted dying in Scotland after MSPs voted last week to allow it to progress. Opinion polls consistently show majority support for assisted dying, including a significant majority of voters aligned with the Church of Scotland.

In 2023 the assembly had voted heavily in favour of reviewing its stance. But on Monday it heard from John Williams, a commissioner with terminal cancer, who said it was “a bad bill” and “not the way.”

Rev Dr John Ferguson, the working group convener, said that if its recommendations had been accepted “then the church will have moved on from a binary position on assisted dying to adopting a realistic honest and loving position, which it can hold with integrity.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch posted a lengthy thread to social media earlier today about the UK-EU trade deal negotiated by Keir Starmer’s government, in which she accused Labour of “reopening the old Brexit battles we’ve already fought – and won.”

In the thread she claimed the results of the deal were “More EU law. More EU judges. More money sent to Brussels”.

She claimed “Starmer never accepted Brexit. He tried to block it 43 times … we settled this debate during Brexit. Labour is now reversing it – bit by bit.”

Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel was extremely combative on the morning media round today, and the Conservative party have clipped up some of her interviews to put out on social media. Here is a taste of what she had to say:

What we’re now seeing is sheer dishonesty from Keir Starmer and his appalling Labour government that have deceived the public.

What they’ve effectively done is that they’re signing up to a foreign court, the European court of justice all over again. We’ve got to pay for the privilege of the indignity of going back into a European court and being a rule taker. And they’ve sold out our fishermen with a 12 year deal.

I understand that Starmer went into the negotiations saying he wanted a four year deal, but he’s come out 100 times worse with a 12 year deal [sic], which is basically going to put British fisheries in proper jeopardy.

Now I see these guys, the Labour MPs, the Labour government, every day. You know their instincts are not the same instincts of those of the British people. They don’t care about Britain in the way in which your listeners do, or my party does, and did when we campaigned for Brexit and delivered Brexit.

And a classic example of this is look at how they’re wrecking our domestic economy. You mentioned winter fuel payments. Look at the family farm tax, look at increases on national insurance. And they’ve got the audacity to put out a press release yesterday saying this is good for Britain

I think he’s taken us all for fools, and it just shows how arrogant and out of touch, they are.

During her media round appearances this morning, industry minister Sarah Jones also attempted to stress the stability aspect of the government’s new trade deal. She told viewers of Good Morning Britain:

Where we can sell into is just as important as what we can fish. We are protecting the existing system so there will be no more access to our waters than currently exists. There will be the same access we have into European waters that we currently have. That brings us benefits.

What would have happened under the previous deal that was negotiated by the Conservatives was this situation would have just stopped in 2026, and we would have been in a situation where we were negotiating it year after year after year. Some years we might have negotiated something that was good. Some years we might have failed and had a bad outcome.

This brings certainty for 12 years, and it opens up our European markets so we can sell more fish and shellfish into those European markets, which is really important.

Put to her that there are indications the government was only seeking to extend the arrangement by four years, and that it had been bounced into agreeing a longer timeframe by the EU, she said she had not been in the negotiations herself, but, she said “I can’t confirm this, but I suspect the Europeans were trying to make the fishing deal permanent.”

She continued:

We have negotiated what we believe to be a good deal. The benefits outweigh any costs very substantially. We will not have rotting fish at our borders because of the checks that need to go in to that. We will not be paying hundreds of pounds in admin costs for every lorry load.

Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel has said that Keir Starmer cannot be trusted over any negotiations on Gibraltar. Asked on the GB News channel whether she thought the government was in the process of giving Gibraltar away, Patel said:

We should never trust Keir Starmer. You know, he’s screwing things up domestically, so he gets on the international bandwagon.

He’s selling us out, not just on Brexit, but on Chagos and … we’re hearing all sorts of things about Gibraltar. We’ll hold them to account on this. Where Labour negotiates, Britain always seem to lose.

Jessica Elgot, our deputy political editor, reports that Labour is to cancel its national women’s conference and restrict all-women shortlists as it awaits full guidance from the equalities watchdog, sparking criticism from trans rights and gender critical campaigners. You can find that here.

If you missed it, yesterday Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey covered the UK-EU trade deal in our Politics Weekly podcast. You can listen to that here.

Industry minister Sarah Jones criticised the previous government’s attitude to the European Union, while ruling out the prospect of rejoining.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, she said:

The worst of both worlds was when we had a prime minister who couldn’t even say whether France was an ally, and we had such entrenched ideological positions that we got absolutely nowhere.

What we have here is a deal where we’re not rejoining the EU. We know what our red lines are on the customs union, single market. I don’t need to rehearse those.

Where we do a deal on particular aspects of trade, there has to be an agreement about the rules of the game to stop one side shafting the other, apart from anything else.